He Saw A Man Named Matthew

Change the sinners to the righteous

How crazy is the modern world! The commandments are not followed. No one wants to be labeled a sinner. Everything is either justified, rationalized, or somehow explained away. The truth, the reality of the human condition is often cloaked behind a veil of New Age mumbo jumbo or a wall of psychobabble posing as scientific thought.

The simple fact remains the same. People sin everyday. There is no way to whitewash this fact. Sin can not be concealed or hidden. Sin exists whether we like it or not. We often sin accidentally, I believe this to be true especially in conversation.

I try various things to avoid sin. I pray. I try not to talk too much. I am part of a long line of talkers with a little too much curiosity and and a little too much obliquity. I sometimes pray for a little more common sense to help keep my tongue still.

I acknowledge that I am a sinner. I try to avoid sin, I try to avoid temptation. I am human. I have strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes I feel bad after I sin. Sometimes not, especially if it occurred during a great conversation filled with lots of laughter and jokes and anecdotes. Sin is a natural part of life for each and every human being. We have to accept this inevitability, this reality. We are asked to learn how to avoid sin.

As Catholics the sacraments help to put things into perspective. Every time we attend Mass we are encouraged to examine our lives, our decisions.

The meaning of our lives as Christians begins and ends with love and forgiveness. We are imperfect creatures striving for a perfect relationship with God.

I am a sinner trying to learn how to be righteous with prayer, reflection, silence, good deeds.

I am a sinner filling my life with goodness, kindness, holiness.

I am a sinner seeking righteousness, seeking God’s forgiveness.

Sin remains an equal opportunity distraction, diversion, temptation for all men, for all religions.

I pray for each and everyone of us to develop the strength to avoid sin, to live a life of fairness, a life of love, a life of social justice, a life of compassion, a life of mercy. I pray that we each find the strength of character to be like Jesus Christ in our daily lives.

God Asks Us to Forgive

When you attend Mass there is a good chance that either love or forgiveness will be mentioned. So important are these two themes that we need to be reminded constantly, to be reassured that both are beneficial to us, to be encouraged to have the confidence to forgive, to love our neighbor.

Forgiving someone goes beyond the acceptance of a verbal apology. Forgiving someone goes beyond the verbal response. Forgiving when it is true begins in the soul. Forgiveness requires both a spiritual and an emotional letting go. Forgiveness requires prayer, reflection, patience. We can ask God for guidance and help. God provides assistance; Christ Jesus provides lessons.

The secular world likes conflict, unrest, anxiety. The secular world likes to divide people. Mistakes happen. Pain finds us. Sometimes people are malicious and try to incite chaos and mayhem. Sometimes accidents happen. Holding grudges, seeking revenge often creates more problems for us. Two rude acts equal two rude acts. One rude act does not magically disappear.

God deserves a preeminent place in your life. Typing that is easier than doing it. Our lives are filled with many competing items and events. There is not enough time to do all of the things that we want to do. We want more time for prayer, more time to do God’s work. Taking the time to look at our lives, at our conflicts, arguments coolly, objectively requires a spiritual strength, a powerful faith in God.

Forgiving is forgiving, wiping the slate clean, erasing all bad memories, deleting the pain. Forgiving is forgetting. Forgiving requires humility, compassion. As we forgive each other, we extend and share charity with each other. In life bad things will happen, that is a given. The bad does not have to be remembered or preserved in our brains.

As Christians our gaze needs to always be looking up toward the kingdom of heaven. Our lives can be examples of social justice, fairness, and love if we desire. Depending upon the offense, forgiving seems out of reach. Depending upon our relationship with God, forgiving remains out of reach. True, honest forgiveness can be difficult to discover, to extend. If we are able to achieve forgiveness, a moment of divine peace, divine grace will spread from our soul, to our heart, to our mind. Forgiveness asks us to forget our earthly body, our earthly concern and to think and behave like God. Forgiveness shifts our concern from ourselves to those who have harmed us. Our prayers will include them, asking for their protection.

Forgiveness begins with communication to God, when we take the time to present our problems and concerns to God with honesty, truth. Our lives contain different levels of vulnerability, different levels of fear. Forgiveness occurs when we present everything to God and release it from our soul, from our heart, from our mind.

Forgiveness can lead to love. Forgiveness can lead to goodness, kindness, holiness. First we are asked to believe in God, to have faith and trust in God, to love God.

When God is preeminent in our lives forgiveness becomes easier.

Martin Luther King, Jr Receives Memorial on Mall

Whenever I think of Martin Luther King, Jr., I immediately think about social justice. I think of fairness for all people. I think of hope. I think of doing the right thing in the face of all types of oppression. I think of making the ultimate sacrifice for the higher good.

As a Catholic I can use Martin Luther King as a model as I think about and work for change.

As an American there is something uniquely special about Martin Luther King, Jr. His fight for civil rights was very personal, lasted many years, was a plea for justice for all. His concern for humanity was universal. His concern for life was unconditional. Justice was not only for the privileged few, it was for all. His words were inspirational.

His life ended before his work was completed. The struggle for civil rights still continues today.

There is a new memorial dedicated to Martin Luther King, Jr. located on the Mall in Washington, DC.

Assemble and listen - December 17, 2010

There is but one thing necessary thing in life. That is to know and love God; to have God within your heart, mind, and soul; to have the benefits of God within your entire being.

It is essential that we learn how to approach and how to adore God, both during Mass and outside of Mass, inside of a church and outside of a church. Personal resources will have to be developed to seek and to experience divinity. We must learn how to detach ourselves from our possessions, from our thoughts, from all things which might be taken, all things which might be lost. It is important, absolutely essential to understand and believe what is eternal. Everything in life which is not eternal is temporary, simply borrowed. All those things which help us gain admittance to heaven are real, are beautiful when they are used appropriately for the glory and love of God. As Christians we are asked to learn, to adore, to understand, to accept, to experience, to share, to teach about God, about his love and mercy for each of us, about loving our neighbors as we love ourselves. This is a responsibility. This is our duty. This is God’s law, God’s plan. When we follow it, we experience happiness, we move closer to God, closer to heaven. When we truly, honestly, deeply love and serve God nothing can stop us, not even death. The purpose of our Christian life is to develop a peaceful mind, to discover and extoll the presence of God, to discern how to better serve God. Being in communion with God, listening to and following his instruction is the goal. There is no reason to have fear. Let the love for God give you strength. Let it teach you to sacrifice, teach you to pray, teach you to love, teach you to live with the beauty and peace of the principles of fairness and social justice as taught by Jesus Christ. All moral thought and ethics will begin with love and loyalty to God. Let his will act as your guide. All greatness exists for those who do his work patiently, lovingly, gently. Being Christian means allowing and wanting God to dwell within our beings, our complete beings and wanting this completely and consciously. The potential for goodness, kindness, and holiness waits to expand within each Christian, waits for moral fairness, moral decency, moral superiority to flourish. A superiority of spirit, a kind of purity which is obtained and maintained by prayer and discernment is necessary when doing God’s work.

All of this begins with love; all is nurtured by love.

Today's Gospel MK 16:9-15 - A Couple of Thoughts About Unbelief and Belief

How do we approach God? How do we live the Faith? How do our choices reflect our belief in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ? We live in time of media hype. Everything is promoted. Everything is commercial. Each day we have choices to make. Do we eat a hamburger or a salad for lunch? Do we buy Italian leather shoes or made in China shoes? There is so much advertisement trying to influence our decision with so much information, so many statistics, so many testimonials that it is often difficult believing any of it. We want to see the results with our own eyes. We want to see the data and make sure that it is correct. We are encouraged to believe so many claims based upon nothing. In many ways our lives are governed as much by a grudging unbelief in so many claims as it is by a humble, natural belief. Trust is often desired but takes it time arriving. We allow ourselves to be suspicious of new ideas, new people, new claims. If our eyes can not examine the data, it might be unacceptable.

When God makes his appearance in our lives how do we greet him? When God makes his appearance in our lives, how do we react to him? Are our Christian lives filled with examples of hope and belief or filled with examples of despair and unbelief? Existing with unbelief is easier than living with belief for some Christians. There is always something to challenge, to doubt. Belief requires a certain amount of trust, a certain amount of hope, and a certain type of faith and acceptance.

We often pray for God’s mercy, God forgiveness. It is not easy for us to show mercy to each other, to show forgiveness for wrongs and slights done by our neighbors. We often talk about loving our neighbors as we love ourselves. It is great to talk about loving our neighbors as ourselves but more difficult to do it. We can talk of living our lives to please God. But, actually doing it is difficult.

We are like the Apostles who after hearing of Christ’s resurrection did not believe it. We have so many ideas, so much evidence, so much information, so much proof that it is easy for unbelief in goodness, unbelief in love, universal and unconditional, unbelief in fairness, unbelief in social justice to fester into a coldness, a hardness of heart and soul.

Do we need to have seven demons driven from our bodies to accept and to follow Jesus? Do we have the confidence and hope to bear witness for God. With prayer and patience we will learn how to follow this request, “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.”

We live in a time of such great intelligence and innovation in technology and shocking ignorance of the necessity and power of goodness, holiness, and love. We live in a time where so much of our energy is concerned with acquisition and consumption. The focus of our intellectual energies is often so narrow, excluding everything that is not essential to the present moment. We miss so many opportunities to be good, to observe goodness in others. How we live as Christians should not be influenced by the whims and caprices of pop culture or the secular world.

As Christians we must simply remember to live each day with the desire to please God. Our words and actions must always echo, “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.”

Leading Us to Heaven

We must always remember that each step we make each day that we live is leading us to heaven. Our hearts and minds must always be directed toward this goal. God must always be our priority, the guiding power of our lives. Allow serving God to give your life meaning and direction. We must remember to attend Mass on Sundays and Days of Obligation; but that is not enough. We must do more. Our lives must be filled with hope and love. We must be concerned with fairness, social justice, human dignity of all people especially the poor.

Love can be transcendental. Hope can be transcendental.

Selfishness can lead to dissipation and despair. Jealousy can lead to stupefaction and moral lethargy.

Our theological development begins each time we go to Mass and continues when we return to the secular world. There might be quiet moments of self revelation and prayer once we leave the church. The circumstances and problems of our lives wait for our return; sometimes they are joined by all types of temptations. Sometimes we hesitate in sharing our love and our forgiveness.

Do not let this trouble you. Simply accept it and offer it to God. With patience and prayer your troubles will leave you. The road to goodness is difficult, requires diligence and sacrifice. Following Christ can be lonely at times. We may get lost within the solitude if our hearts and souls are not properly prepared for the pain and suffering of being a faithful, loving, humble servant of God.

Remember to always praise God, offer thanks to him. Call upon God for guidance and help. Pray to God often, sincerely, lovingly. Allow yourself only one luxury in this life: silence.

Goodness

Once upon I knew how to make people feel comfortable, wanted. With a certain type of cinematic inspired charm, I could with diligence and patience disarm anyone.

Goodness does not begin with a smile. Goodness does not worry about comfort. Goodness asks for effort and perseverance. We may not immediately recognize goodness when it arrives for there will be much activity, much change, much resistance.

As Christians we must always be conscious where we are currently, where we are going. Our lives present us with many opportunities to bear witness to God’s love, God’s forgiveness. We must learn how to proclaim this. We must learn how to praise God without fear or shame.

Our lives gain meaning when we live them according to God’s commandments, when we offer each moment of our daily existence to the glory and for the praise of God. When we are able to keep our minds focused on God, being God’s humble loving servants, we are freed from many temptations.

Our lives gain purpose when we are able to show others compassion, empathy, and love without any desire or expectation for any reciprocation.

Being Christian is at times exhausting work. The triumph of Christian Life is both the enthusiasm of our love and devotion to God and the teachings of Christ and the strong mature emotions which direct us toward fairness, social justice as taught by Jesus, and a continual examination of conscience. Being Christian is accepting our limitations, accepting our sins, repenting for our sins, resisting temptation.

There are many metaphysical and philosophical conceits regarding being Christian, being Catholic.

Let our lives and our good deeds provide evidence of our reverence and fidelity to God. Do not worry about the assumptions or conjecture of others. Live each day only to serve and to love God. Live each day only to praise and give God thanks.

God is not abstract; God is not hypothetical. God is concrete. God is relevant.

Allow yourself time to study the Holy Scriptures. Allow yourself time to pray.

Christians are always active, always in motion, always serving God, always moving toward God. Christians will suffer, will sacrifice, will feel pain. We must always remember that God is always with us, we must always remember to offer the entirety of our lives good and bad, dark and light to God.

Antidote

--Pray when you wake-up. Live your life based upon fairness, social justice and love. Make time to both read and reflect upon each book of the Bible. Let the teachings of Jesus Christ inspire you to revolt against all evil and injustice. Live your life with joyous expectation. Have hunger only for God’s love and mercy. Open your soul up to the idea of and responsibility for your own discernment to listen for and to answer God’s call. Seek the style and beauty of goodness and holiness. Allow yourself to be conscious of each impression of gentleness, softness, of hopefulness, of prayers, of reflection, caressing, encouraging—an emphasis, calm yet confident, contemplative and passionate, with serenity and loving humility. Sense the greatness of God’s love; allow all your labors to be an opportunity to praise and give thanks to God. Do not be obstinate and seek only definitions and answers; instead be mindful of your anxiety and nourish your questions; allow them to grow, to expand, to contract over time; let your questions change and mature with time, with prayer, with reflection. Seek silence. Seek forgiveness. Be compassion. Be Love. Pray, pray, pray and pray again.

--Pray the Rosary at least once a week. Find good faith inspiring books for reading and reflection. Create a life of humility, obedience, and charity. Concentrate only on improving the best qualities of your life; the love within your heart, the hope within your soul should be your guide. Be conscious of the presence of God within your life. Always show respect to God. Always show reverence for God. Keep good company. Pray, pray, pray. Remember the virtues.

Let the impression of your life be filled with the humility, obedience, charity of God’s loving humble servant.

Do not fear austerity; simplicity allows us to find and share our love for God. Let love be the emphasis of your life with him. Be conscious of every impression of charity, obedience, humility. Examine your philosophy, your ideas of self and community. Where do you position serving God?

Moral Relativity

I woke up thinking of moral relativity and the relation of the strange conflict between thought and action, and I allowed my imagination to drift toward a bizarre confluence, which appears to have something of the twilight anxiously splashing around it: Action is violent, vulgar, rough thought; thought is a flickering, dreamy, abstract, questioning and somewhat and somehow independent. If we are going to lead lives of goodness and holiness is it not necessary and important for us to understand our own individual thought and action process as we proceed with our daily ritual of trivial and trifling actions, of seeing, talking, and
resting. As Christians we believe in a beautiful mystery which provides a wonderful foundation of truths and thoughts, and that the beauty of our faith encourages us to involve the entirety of our being in actions that are loving, altruistic, ethical, moral. Our lives should contain a fairness and respect for all in both thought and action (as our thoughts develop and encourage us to be more active servants for God, the deeper our love universal becomes). Being Christian surrounds and clothes us with a mystery, the greatest of all mysteries in which we are called to remember, respect God’s love and sacrifice for each one of us. All that we do in our daily lives should reflect our reverence for this mystery.

We have intelligence. We can produce great metaphors and analogies. We must always be conscious of our behavior and the effects of our behavior. As Christians there must be just, intelligent moral actions in our daily lives. Do not try and hide behind individual thought; instead rejoice in prayer to God.

Prayers and Patience

It is time to develop relationships with a common sympathy and interest in fairness and social justice. Mercy and forgiveness should be easily and honestly shared. We should move towards being loving and compassionate. Our hope should be extended beyond any slef-serving goals. Envy and greed, uncontrolled, can lead us away from God. Any separation can lead to all types of afflictions and fears. We must always remember decency and morality. Our lives require a foundation of love, peace, compassion, and hope. Even I cannot know all things that need our prayers; but God knows, and it does please Him to hear our prayers for each other. We must always remember and respect all the blessings that He gave. And we must make time to read and understand the Bible; we must make our lives be right since we are all his servants! Indeed we must expect both great grief and magnificent contentment! Prayer can help us to be better Christians and better human beings when we allow ourselves to believe in the majesty and beauty of God. Love often surrounds me; prayers help me feel closer to God; but I should not then deny the consolation of praying and then remembering to pray for all those in need of God’s mercy and love.

It is both reasonable and acceptable to speak now of our prayers, and circumstances which have been compelled us to pray. We must believe that God’s responses will arrive unquestionably at the appropriate moment according to God’s precepts; the responses will correspond to his plan, his idea of what we need; we must wait patiently, obediently and accept his responses with humility and grace; above all we must believe that his responses are filled with love, compassion, and mercy. We are all his children. We are all alive and well. Our hopes, our dreams have been composed by God—our Father is quietly supporting us with his own forgiveness, his own love, his own patience. He asks that we develop loving fortitude. He asks for our humility, charity, and obedience. He waits for our response. His love and concern for us is an inexpressible comfort to many who bear witness to his goodness and wisdom. God is our comfort. God offers salvation if we simply, lovingly obey him.

I cannot say that being obedient shall always be easy for us; obedience will be very difficult for us at times and we will be filled with all types of rationalizations, justifications and other shoddy reasons and fallacies allowing all types of resistance thoughts and actions. God knows and expects this; we must learn it if we are to follow in Christ’s footsteps. Always remember that God is always glad to see you, to hear your prayers. The weather is never too dreary or too humid for him to listen and we are never too far from him: and when you pray, be honest as you open your heart and soul to him; enjoy your prayers; enjoy the silence; pray often; and listen with calmness and quiet in your mind. God’s answer can take many forms and can occur at any moment. Perhaps we are ready to hear and understand it; perhaps we are not. We must have patience. It might be better if we were less concerned with earthly temporal matters which can make us selfish, distract and divert our love, goodness, and holiness. Within each of us is the capacity for being humble, loving, forgiving like God if we are able to overcome our insecurities and fears long enough to do what he asks—but we must always pray! Words cannot adequately express the regard and esteem that God presents to us each day of our lives. We receive his tenderness, his watchfulness. I can never forget God’s love for us or how unworthy I do feel because of my selfishness, my pettiness. I believe that I have felt God’s presence every hour and minute of my life—my memory is filled with reading and reciting Bible verses, hearing and saying prayers, seeing the wonders and beauty of nature. Building a good relationship with God is more precious to me than any earthly blessing; I have prayed for myself and I have prayed for others and I remind myself not to worry, not to want an immediate response; and yet, what I should feel, and how I should pray, remain as sweet variables, sweet daily lessons teaching me humility, obedience, charity; but I did just now remember that I have so much left learn about how to love as God wants us to love.

Devotion

A another thought about devotion to God, instead of modern compromise, it requires action and obedience. I had the joy of seeing many members of the parish kneel and pray during the liturgy of the Eucharist; I had the joy of hearing the prayers spoken by the priests; and yet, the expressions on some of the faces, expectant, anticipating, reverent, as the words “Body of Christ” were spoken which were both beautiful and inspiring. All of this happened in front of me. I had a feeling that I was unworthy.

It is the most delicate of hours; the love of God continues to flourish, but our deliverance will be guaranteed only by the price of our efforts when we feel and share our charity, humility, and obedience.

I wish my devotion was covered with flowers, and singing. My greatest consolation is that I understand the necessity of goodness and holiness; in small increments my life is changing to include them; being a humble servant of God is a complete way of life.It was a deep consolation to be together till the end.

It is fine of Jesus Christ to have saved this drowning disciple by providing the Beatittudes. We don't always realize and understand the reserve and beauty of heroism there is in being Christian, and among the young spiritual followers who believe in and understand the principles of fairness and social justice.

In regard to our Faith, I may tell you that daily prayer and weekly attendance are important. But what is in our hearts and souls are equally important. Please pray and strive to keep your hearts clean and pure.

As for my state of Faith, my devotion is increasing, my love of God does give me strength and hope, my desire is to be a patient, humble servant. Each day I learn a little more about obedience. As a Christian I must always understand that my duty is to love everyone as I love myself and to be a willing, loving, humble servant of God. I must always be ready to suffer and sacrifice in the name of God. I must always work to have a clean undefiled conscience and an enthusiastic spirit willing to offer praise and glory to God through all of the actions of my life.

Choices

Today reviewed some photographs taken inside the Cathedral. Handsome and inspiring with calm, peaceful, unobtrusive lighting.

In these troubled times making ethical and moral choices requires diligence and patience. We are still without complete protection from sin and sinful behavior, but we have the teachings of Jesus Christ as a template. We also have to remember the Ten Commandments and all of the parables, psalms, and lessons within the Bible which help to create our spiritual landscape, notwithstanding the creation of our social justice beliefs. Within our social justice beliefs reside the best of us, the ability to love, to show mercy, to forgive, and to be humble; the best impression of the human heart, mind, and soul begins here with thoughts which hopefully will transform into actions called moral. Great hope will be made upon our desire for fairness and goodness. We must always remember that our lives as Christians require fortitude, sacrifice, obedience, patience. We must remember fortitude.